KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of students walked out of Shawnee Mission South on Thursday, Nov. 30, in support of a Shawnee Mission East student that was assaulted and called racial slurs by another student at school earlier in the month.
Brey'anna Brown, a Black sophomore at SME, was assaulted and called racial slurs by a white student on Nov. 15 after she confronted him for using racial slurs, according to students who witnessed the altercation. Brown's nose was broken in the altercation and she was suspended from school.
"Part of our responsibility is to help our students to find their voice. When they have things that they need to say, we need to listen, and to hear them," said David A. Smith, chief communications officer of the Shawnee Mission School District, in a statement to KSHB 41 News.
“I think it means a lot and it shows that people do support and people are there for us,” Shawnee Mission East student Charlize Littlejohn (pictured) told KSHB 41 reporter Leslie DelasBour at the SMS walkout on Thursday. “The fact that South went out of their way to show their support — a lot of the people came out. It makes me feel very good to know that we are doing something.”
A 15-year-old SME student was charged with unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly cause great bodily harm to another person or disfigurement of another person — a level 4 person felony — in relation to the altercation.
KSHB 41 News is not naming the student because he is a minor.
“I couldn’t stand here and just watch it happen,” Shawnee Mission South senior Ace Cofield said at the walkout on Thursday. “We had to change something, so I said, ‘What can I do?”’
Cofield said he planned to hold the walk out regardless of if the school’s administrators were in support, but that turned out not not to be an issue.
“Our principal said, 'Yes,' and we were able to get it started,” Cofield said. “We just really want change to happen.”
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